


Blow Us All Away

by AccioMarvel



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alexander has anxiety, Alternate Universe - College/University, Dad friend Hercules Mulligan is uncle father figure in this fic, Dolley being a dog in this work has nothing to do with my opinions of Real Life Dolley Madison, Don't worry, Gen, Its college, James has epilepsy, Princeton crew, There will be drug usage, Washington the RA from hell or from heaven?, discovering of sexualities will happen, don't worry this is not based on real life Princeton, it's about to get really gay, it's also about to get really social justice-y, there's more of everyone to come, yo it's so hard to get into
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:11:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5837581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AccioMarvel/pseuds/AccioMarvel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexander Hamilton loved a good challenge. Now, he faces the biggest challenge of his life: Figuring out himself, his life, & Princeton University. But luckily, he's got some new friends who are here to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Move In Day

Alexander Hamilton had always loved adventures. Growing up in the Caribbean with his mother, they use to go on adventures daily. His mother had made everything an adventure. Getting ready for school, doing his chores, even eating dinner had been an adventure with mom. He dreamed of bigger adventures, of course, but when he dreamed of going on those big adventures, he always had pictured that his mother would be with him. Instead, he was alone on his journey when he moved to New York City to live with his uncle, his mother, buried in the cemetery Alex use to pass on his way to school. But Alex was sure his mother would have loved it, and that she would have been proud of how well behaved he was for his Uncle, Hercule Mulligan. She would have been proud of how hard he worked to become a citizen and how hard he worked in school, graduating from high school valedictorian.  
Now came the next big adventure: Going to college. Alex had thankfully gotten into his top school, Princeton University, on scholarship. He always felt like a burden on his Uncle Hercules, seeing that before Alex had moved in, he had been a happy bachelor who didn’t have a care in the world. He was thankful to get a scholarship so that he could be less of a financial burden. The drive from Washington Heights to Princeton wasn’t that long, but for Alex it felt like an eternity. His anxiety plagued him as his mind raced to making up ways moving in could be ruined. It ranged from as simple as Hercules revealing his “Princeton Uncle” shirt, to accidentally setting the entire campus on fire. Almost ironically, his anxious daydreams, though they were more like nightmares made the trip go fast and soon, they were in the parking lot of his dorm. While his uncle searched for a parking spot, Alex struggled to keep calm, he couldn’t feel his legs or his arms. “Breathe, Alex. You’re going to be just fine.” His uncle reassured him, picking up on his anxiety. Alex swallowed the lump forming in his throat  
“Can’t I just...defer? Just for a year. Tell them… I need some time… to get my anxiety under control… I just-”  
“Hey,” Hercules said, as soon as they’d parked “it’s going to be okay alright? Take a deep breath. You know I’d say you could defer if we weren’t right in the parking lot, right? Hey, look at me. Everything is going to be just fine.” Alex didn’t believe him, but he nodded anyway. They both unbuckled and grabbed a bin. Even though he was anxious about, well, everything. He was excited to have a roommate. He had spent nearly the entire day after roommate assignments went out Facebook Stalking his roommate and compiling a list of what he could figure out from Facebook. His roommate’s name was James Madison, and was from Richmond, Virginia. He definitely had more money than Alex, and he absolutely loved his service dog, named Dolley. Alex had “aww”ed out loud of the picture of James, with his mother, and dog at graduation that had been captioned “Two of the most important girls in my life. They even gave Dolley a certificate for having perfect attendance!” The only thing it seemed that Alex could not figure out, was why James need a service dog. Other than appearing to be relatively short and underweight, James seemed perfectly healthy.  
“Here we are!” His Uncle said excitedly, as he opened the door to room 1784. James and his family had already arrived, and had gotten most things of his things unpacked. They greeted Alex and his uncle enthusiastically, and Alex couldn’t help but smile at their southern charm, as they offered to help Uncle Hercules grab the rest of Alex’s things. Leaving James and Alex alone, well, not completely alone. Dolley lay snoozing on James’ bed, wearing her service dog vest. He looked around to see what he could learn about James now. First off, James was short, about a head shorter than Alex, he had brown hair, and blue eyes. he wore a faded black tee that had the deathly hallows symbol on it and hung loosely around his thin frame. His desk was organized and decorated with pictures of him with his family and high school friends and what looked like a vintage global. On the wall hung a Virginian flag and a copy of what had to be The Declaration of Independence. James helped Alex unpack his bedding and make his bed, and soon, his Uncle and James’ family were back and set down the rest of Alex’s things. The Madison’s announced that they had a long drive back to Virginia, so they were going to go. James family said goodbye to him, Alex could see his mother trying her hardest not to cry as she hugged him goodbye, and felt a pang of pain in his chest imagining his own mother here. She would have been so excited for Alex, being the first in his family to go to college. Mrs. Madison patted Dolley on the head, sniffling and turned to Alex smile and saying what a pleasure it was to meet him. They all watched James’ parents leave and an uncomfortable silence filled the room. Soon Uncle Hercules would have to leave too, he imagined him and James might never be able to get past the awkward small talk and uncomfortable silence.  
That moment came about a half an hour later, when there was nothing else to unpack and Alex and his uncle stood facing each other, neither wanting to say good-bye. Alex was sure his uncle wasn’t going to cry, but when to two embraced, as they said good-bye, he felt his uncle take a shaky breathe, “stay out of trouble, Remember, I’m a phone call and only about an hour away if you need to come home... and just- take care of yourself, Alex.” he said hoarsely. Alex, feeling the lump in his throat forming, he could only nod. His uncle turned and shook James’ hand. Watching his uncle leave, Alex feels his anxiety creeping, the farther away his uncle gets the closer his anxiety got, the click of the door felt like a distant echo, and he waited for the silence between him and James to crush him. But it didn’t.  
“So- what are you majoring in?” James asked, hopping onto his bed.  
“Uhh.. I’m not majoring in anything yet.” Alex responded, embarrassed. “What about you, what’s your major?”  
“Political Science. But who knows, that could change.” James said, silence fell for about five seconds before Alex suggested that they could go walk around campus and soon Alex, James, and Dolley were strolling around campus. Dolley was a Border Collie with shiny black and white fur. She had the most intelligent brown eyes and was obviously very focused (duh, she’s a service dog) It was about about an hour with James before curiosity finally got the better of him.  
“Okay, so I don’t mean to pry but, why-”  
“-Do I need service dog?” James smirked. Alex felt his cheeks flush, embarrassed that he had asked so suddenly. The last thing he needed was to offend his roommate. God, why did he even ask? But James didn’t seem offended at all, he just answered. “I have epilepsy. Dolley is trained to know signs of seizures that even the person about to have the seizure can’t pick up on. She can warn me if I’m about to have a seizure, so I can get somewhere safe.”  
“That’s dope.” Alex said, realizing the second it left his mouth that it was the stupidest thing he could have possibly said. But James laughed.  
“It really is. Plus she can do other things, retrieve a phone to call for help, remind me to take and retrieve my medicine, I’m terrible at remembering it. Plus, she’s a familiar face for when I come too and have no idea what’s going on.” James said with the tiniest bit of a smile as he rubbed Dolley’s head. She looked up at him and she looked as though she were smiling. They ended up going back to their room soon after getting food at the dining hall and stomaching it. There was a post-it on their door that said “Floor Meeting @ 10 in the lounge. Be there or be documented. -G. Wash.”  
“Who the hell is ‘G. Wash.?’” Alex sneered offended by the harass tone of the note.  
“Well, I think it’s safe to say they are our R.A.”  
“I don’t like them.” Alex snarled, checking his watch, great it was 9:50 now. Walking down the hall to the lounge they found it to already have four of their presumed floormates sitting awkwardly on the couches. Two of them were arguing loudly about which was better Virginia or New Jersey. The one from Virginia (“Well, at least we have laws in Virginia!”) had a scruffy beard, and the most glorious hair Alex had ever seen. He wore thick rimmed glasses. The boy defending New Jersey (“If Virginia ez so great then why are ooo ‘ere?! ‘uh?!”) spoke with a thick French accent, he looked similar to the boy he was arguing with accept he did not have glasses, his hair had been dreadlocked, and he was clean shaven. Both though sat, awkwardly tall and lanky. Another one sat, buried in his book dramatically sighing as the two raged on. He was bald and had a brow that hadn’t unfurrowed since Alex and James had entered the room. The fourth sat staring out the window, a small smile painted on his face. He had gloriously curly hair, similar to the other two boys, but his eyes were green, and his face was peppered with freckles.  
“I’m assuming you’re all here for the floor meeting.” Alex said, all conversation stopped, and everyone's eyes turned to him.  
“Wait, are you the R.A.?” The boy who had been buried in his book asked  
“No.”  
“Hold up, is that a dog?” The boy from Virginia asked.  
“Yes!” James smiled happily. Immediately attention became glued onto Dolley, who seemed to enjoy it. The Virginian introduced himself as Thomas Jefferson and quickly seemed to glue himself to his fellow Virginian, James. The French boy was Gilbert, but he hated that named and insisted on being known by his last name, LaFayette. He was an international student, from France, obviously. So No, he wasn’t Thomas’ brother, they were roommates and yes, they did look alike… they hated it. As they said several times. The bookworm was named Aaron Burr, and the boy in the window was his roommate John Laurens, and he had the brightest smile Alex had ever seen. Alex and James introduced themselves, and James introduced Dolley, who was absolutely loving all the new people. More people soon flooded into the lounge, mostly the girls on the floor. Two of the girls came in and sat down in a corner away from the guys, whispering and giggling. All Alex could catch was that the two roommates were named Maria and Sally. They had similar olive skin and the same beautiful jet black curly hair, but at the same time, they looked like polar opposites. Maria had beautiful done her makeup to impress, red lips, cat eyes, the whole nine yards. Sally looked like she had maybe put on eyeliner and lip gloss, but otherwise her face was plain. About a three minutes before the meeting was about to start, a beautiful half-asian women, probably the most beautiful woman Alexander had ever seen, entered with a girl who was black but had similar features to her, They revealed that they were half-sisters and yes, they were close. Alex listened as the others pined about how they wished they were that close with their siblings, He thought about his siblings. He had an older brother, much older, who had been named, ironically enough, James. James had moved out before mom had died, and just like dad, he never bothered to reach out to Alex, the only family that ever reached out was his Uncle. He became lost in memories of his brother laughing, his parents fighting, the sound of terrible coughing and hospitals and frantic french. He felt a hand on his shoulder, was that real? Where was he? Oh, right. Princeton. The world became sharper again. It had been James (Madison) hand on his shoulder, he asked softly if Alex was okay, Dolley’s intelligent eyes had trained themselves on Alex. “Yeah man. Just daydreaming.” He shrugged with a smirk to make it more convincing. James furrowed his eyebrows, Alex should have known better than to try and fool James about how he anxiety cause blackouts and flashbacks sometimes. James went to continue arguing but they all became distracted by the slamming of the door hitting the wall. The room which had been filled with warm introductions and small laughs and giggles, fell uncomfortably silent as all eyes turned to the man who was undoubtedly the RA.  
He was a tall, stocky man with what could only be the eyes of an eagle or hawk or whatever the scariest bird of prey you can think of is, those were his eyes. His brow was continuously furrowed as he handed a folder filled with paper to each of his residents, who were all completely silent and completely terrified. After handing out folders to each resident and then going and sitting at the front of the room and looking each resident in the eye he finally spoke. “Hello, freshmen. I’m George Washington. I’m your RA. Now, I hope we all can get along, and be cool, be buddy-buddy… and if we can’t? Well, I’m confident that I can make your time as my resident, a living hell. Are we clear?” Everyone sputtered a ‘yes, sir’ and LaFayette was so terrified only French came out. Washington smirked, “Read your folders on your own time, and you’re free to go.” Nobody hesitated to leave, retreating in near silence, only a brave few whispered, to their rooms. James, Alex, and Dolley took their retreat quickly and silently. And as soon as James clicked the door shut behind them, James mouthed “holy fucking shit” very dramatically. To which Alex nodded very rapidly.  
The two decided that going to bed would just be there best option, since tomorrow they have mandatory campus activities and tours. James crawled into his bed and Dolley hopped up too, lay between James and the edge of the bed, probably to keep James from falling out of bed if he had a seizure while sleeping, and the two were almost instantly asleep. Alex however, was up for a long time, his anxiety cause insomnia to get the better of him. He stayed up distracting himself with Facebook, Twitter, Yik Yak, Buzzfeed, and just tossing and turning until finally 4am rolled around and he passed out, exhausted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics means French!

Alex woke up at noon, to James shaking him.

“Look alive Alex, G Wash will not be happy if you miss the mandatory campus tour.” James said as he pulled on a pair of dress socks with little cats on them. God, James was a nerd right down to his socks even. Alex got up and pulled on his favorite jeans and flannel. He didn’t feel like putting in his contacts, so he grabbed his glasses, which had been packed away in the nightstand drawer. They looked like stereotypical hipster glasses, but a bit boxier. He turned to face James, who saw his glasses and chuckled “Nerd.” he said, quietly.

“Oh grow up.” Alex sneered, sarcastically.

Everyone on the floor was suppose to met in the lounge and go from there, so James and Alex headed down the hall to the lounge where Eliza, Angelica, Aaron, and John were already sitting talking. Eliza smiled at them widely

“Good morning, Alex! You too James! Hi Dolley!” She greeted enthusiastically. John turned to smile at the trio and Burr actually looked up from his book for three seconds. Angelica smiled at them. Then George Washington entered. Everyone fell silent. As he watched the color drain from everyone’s face he realized they were worried about what Maria, Sally, Thomas, and LaFayette would face for not being here on time. But George smiled, and looked around the room.

“Good morning, freshmen!” He said cheerfully. “How did everyone sleep?” Everyone was to stunned to answer his question, but it was okay because the sound of people sprinting down the hall interrupted the silence. The door was thrown open by LaFayette and Thomas who were panting and trying to apologize and explain to Washington why they were late with excuses like “I’m zo… ehhh.. what ez ze word...jet lagged?” and “LaFayette snores!” but Washington just laughed heartily and clapped them both on the back. Their confused expressions were priceless.

“But last night you were-” Thomas sputtered

“A complete and total nightmare?” Washington smiled. Thomas nodded quickly. Washington continued to smile but got closer to Thomas until they were nose to nose “Don’t give me a reason to do it again.” he whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. Sally and Maria came down the hall quickly and apologetically. They took Washington’s cheerfulness less suspiciously and just went with it. Washington then stood at the front of the room. “Alright, pair up with someone.. someone who isn’t your roommate.” Alex was paired with LaFayette, James with Thomas, Angelica with Sally, Maria with Laurens, and Eliza with Aaron. Once everyone was paired up, Washington lead them out of the dorm to “Were just going to do a loop around campus, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.” Washington encouraged. Alex couldn’t help but listen to everyones conversations that were budding.

“So what’s your major?” Eliza asked Burr

“I wish I knew.” Burr sighed. His ears strayed away from their conversation to the next.

“I’m just so scared because I’m only 16!” Sally admitted to Angelica

“Don’t worry about it girl, If anything, everyone else should be a afraid of you cause you’re only 16, and at Princeton.” Angelica encouraged. Alex quickly registered Angelica as the mom friend, as his ears moved to a new conversation.

“-I mean, I’m allergic to cats, and my brother has a fear of dogs, so I was never really allowed to have, like, pets you would expect. I have this awesome painted turtle though named Frances!” Laurens rushed, wiping out his phone to show Maria a picture of said turtle.

“oh… neat.” Maria laughed nervously, obviously not expecting to hear a biography on this guys turtle.

“Yo girls are suckers for dogs. You must be able to score so many babes with Dolley.” thomas said, clapping James on the back.

“Well, I mean, yeah, girls love Dolley, but you see, Dolley has this great vest that she wears and most people have this weird form of dyslexia I guess where the word ‘Service Dog’ somehow transforms into ‘I’m Broken.’” James, half joked, their conversation quickly changed topics, but as soon as they changed conversation, LaFayette decided to strike up a conversation.

“Zo, what are oo ‘ere to study?” He smiled.

“ _I don’t have a major yet, but I’m leaning towards Law._ ” Alex streamed out in perfect French.

“ _You speak French?_ ” Lafayette said, obviously happily surprised.

“ _Most of the people on my island were French speaking, I had to learn it to survive._ ” Alex smiled, He had referred to it as ‘his island’ in a long time.

“ _Oh! You are an immigrant too! Where are you from?_ ”

“ _I’m from a small island in the Caribbean. I moved in with my uncle in New York when I was twelve._ ”

“ _That’s amazing! Have you spoken French since?_ ”

“ _Well I mean, I took French in high school for an easy grade. But it was kind of boring cause I already knew it._ ”

“ _Yeah, I get it. We were all kind of forced to take English throughout school._ ”

“ _That’s complete horse shit._ ”

“ _Yeah… but without it, I would not be here at Princeton with you!_ ”

“ _Yeah, with me, having a conversation in French!_ ” Alex laughed, LaFayette joined in, and soon everyone was staring at them.

“Do you think they were talking about us?” Maria whispered. Alex quickly tried to explain that they were just introducing themselves in their native languages. But it was obviously a lost cause as Maria turned to Sally and began a stream of what were obviously Spanish insults of Lafayette and Alexander.

Alex thought they would all leave that shit in high school. He couldn’t really focus on the tour after that. He was too pissed about Maria and figured he’d learn campus as he went, it couldn’t be that hard. By the time they got back to the dorm, Thomas and Lafayette insisted that James and Alex come hang out before they all died of boredom. “Dolley can come too!” Thomas added jokingly. SO the group head to 1789, Thomas and Lafayette’s dorm.

It was the same size as James and Alex’s but On the walls were way more posters. There posters for rappers, both French and American, heard of and unheard of. On one bed, there was a stuffed Eiffel Tower, and on the other, was a Stuffed Statue of Liberty. But when Thomas got on the bed with the Eiffel Tower and Lafayette got on the one with the Statue of Liberty, couldn’t help but be shocked. James must have noticed too because he began laughing hysterically.

“Seriously? Thomas you have a stuffed Eiffel Tower?”

“Yep, Got it when I visited with Martha. She told me I just had to bring it.” Thomas smiled.

“Lafayette! A stuffed lady liberty? Really?”

“What! She was a gift from the French to the Americans, and so am I.” He smirked, obviously very proud of his own joke. The other three shook their heads.

“So Alex,” Thomas said after a while. “I don’t know a lot about you, Where you from? What’s your major?”

“Oh! Well, I’m originally from Nevis, in the Caribbean sea, but I moved to New York when I was twelve so-”

“Wow! You’re English is really good!” Thomas complimented… or, tried to compliment.

“Well… It is my first language…” Alex chuckled awkwardly.

“Oh,” Thomas said, blushing.

“Don’t worry, a lot of people-” Alex started

“-I just figured with your French earlier-”

“-It’s okay really you don’t have to apologize-” The group sat in awkward silence for a good thirty seconds before Thomas finally spoke again.

“Soo… Major?”

“Undeclared, leaning towards Law.” The conversation continued for hours with talks about high school, applying to Princeton, Virginia, Nevis, France, wondering how Dolley got her name (James let his four-year-old sister name her), past girlfriends, and current girlfriends, to which James and Alex listened to LaFayette and Thomas gush about Adrienne and Martha. They talked about shorting Lafayette’s nickname to just Laf. They talked about family and home. They eat an entire box of easy mac, and right before their eyes, it was 9 at night.

“Well, I’m going to go to bed.” James smiled, hopping off Thomas’ bed.

“My grandma stays up later than you!” Thomas sneered

“Your grandma doesn’t have epilepsy I’m assuming.” James deadpanned. Everyone was silent. James looked around awkward. “Okay, I give you all expressed consent to laugh whether I make an epilepsy joke. You guys just aren’t allowed to make jokes.” James said, so they all cracked a smile.

“Can I joke that I’m in love with Dolley?” Thomas said, patting her head

“Nobody jokes about being in love with Dolley, everyone already is in love with Dolley. Just look at these eyes.” He said holding Dolley’s chin. Everyone nodded in agreement. Dolley’s gaze could melt anyone’s heart. James ducked out and Alex headed back the room soon after, figuring he should get some sleep too. It was already dark and James was already asleep. Dolley looked up at Alex, but then put her head back down. Alex obviously didn’t fall asleep immediately. He couldn’t sleep, he found himself surfing the internet. He was on the Epilepsy Foundation website when an ear splitting sound cut through the dorm.

Seriously? A Fire Drill? At 1AM?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Sorry it's so short! The next chapter will be longer I promise! Don't forget to comment and subscribe if you like it!


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone was very obviously unhappy about a fire drill at 1AM, but none more than James who sat, still wrapped in his blanket, miserable on a bench outside. Everyone was laughing and joking, even George Washington was chatting enthusiastically with one of the other RA’s in the building named Martha. It was obviously that the fire drill got everyone too excited and jittery to sleep (Well except for James, who needed his precious 10 hours) Unfortunately, everyone else on the floor seemed to be very very excited and especially loud. Too loud for James to fall asleep. Washington was obviously busy with something important (if by important you mean flirting with that Martha chick) So Alexander took matters into his own hands. The neighbors right next door, Aaron and John, being especially loud, Alex went to them first.  
As soon as Laurens opened the door, the smell of pot hit Alex like a wall. and he quickly figured out they had a fire drill because of Burr and Laurens. Laurens seemed to apologize but Alex was furious  
“Hey it’d be great if you assholes could shut the fuck up considering that you’ve already woken my roommate up once and-”  
“Wow, didn’t know you were your roommate's mother.” Burr spat quietly  
“I’m sorry, what?” Hamilton said, shocked that he was being met with resistances  
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were deaf, I said, If you’re roommate has a problem with us, he can speak for himself.”  
“-Or my roommate is trying to get some sleep so that he doesn’t having a fucking seizure?”  
“Holy shit.” Burr said “Your roommate is Jemmy?”  
“I’m sorry- What?” But Burr was already speeding to Hamilton’s dorm  
“Yooooooo Lil Jemmy!” He called in the doorway  
“Well If it isn’t Aaron Burr!”  
“In the flesh!” Burr said  
“Yo Alex this is Burr! We were roommates at orientation!” James laughed.  
“Sleep well dude!” Burr shouted. There was suddenly a loud slamming noise in the hall  
“Oi! You fuckers want to quiet down? Some of us are actually trying to sleep!” Angelica shouted.  
“Ayyyy What ez all zis about?” Lafayette said, opening his door sleepily. The floor erupted into noise and Washington came storming down the hallway, Martha following close behind.  
“Hey! Alright! Next person to make a noise gets documented!” He fumed. It’s silent for a few seconds. Then, Dolley barked. Washington turned and glared at the border collie, who dopily wagged her tail.  
“I warned you young lady.” Washington said sternly.  
“You’re seriously going to document the dog?” Martha giggled.  
“She’s a resident, is she not?” Washington smiled, softening as soon as he was talking to Martha.  
“Ohh! Gross! Get a room!” Lafayette sneered, Washington turned his eagle eyes to Lafayette, and the young Frenchman immediately turned and ran into his room, slamming the door behind him.  
“But seriously,” Washington said, to everyone still in the hallway, “Get some sleep, guys. You don’t want to be late for your first day of classes tomorrow.” Everyone turned and went back into their rooms. But as Alexander walked into his room he couldn’t help but notice Washington and Martha sneaking off into Washington’s room hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for A- not updating in forever B- An extremely short chapter. They will get longer again don't worry!


	4. Chapter 4

Two weeks went by and Alexander settled into a nice routine, if by nice routine, you expected a young man with dark bags under his eyes, coffee in one hand, phone in the other furiously typing up a paper for his Anthropology class that’s due in an hour. But still, he’s doing better than most. He’s a stellar student, he has already made great friends, he gets along with his roommate, and he hasn’t put on the “Freshman 15” that Jefferson has, he hasn’t even gained a pound. But the reason Alex can astest all of his success to?  
Alexander Hamilton is, as usual, an anxious mess.  
“I should have given myself more time to do this.” He grumbled.  
“Probably.” Madison also grumbles, he’s working on a paper for his Constitutional Law class, it’s due in 2 hours. Alex envies how much time James has. “I fucking hate the Constitution.” James half-growls.   
“No you don’t.” Alex reminds him.  
“You right, you right.”  
“I’m going to fluke out of school and I’m never going to find a job.” Alex sighs  
“No you’re not.” James reminds him. “If you want a shortcut, isn’t that John Laurens kid in your class? Maybe he can help.”   
“Shit! You’re right!” Alex smiled. He grabbed his laptop “Ugh what would I do without you?”   
“Not your paper, that’s for sure.” James sighed. Alex made his way down the hall chuckling.   
Even though their first encounter had been very, very hostile, Alex and Laurens had become friends through Anthropology. The first Tuesday, they happened to leave their rooms at the same time, and start walking awkwardly in the same direction. Laurens struck up the conversation with an apology.  
“Look, man. I’m really sorry about Sunday night. It wasn’t cool of us to smoke in the room and then be obnoxious.” He said. It was probably the most sincere apology Alex had ever gotten in his life.  
“It’s alright man. I shouldn’t have freaked out like that. Sometimes the anxiety just doesn’t know where to go. Plus, it was you’re first time getting high. You didn’t know any better.”  
“Wait,” Laurens said, “How did you know it was my first time getting high.”  
“Well,” Alex said smugly “A- you’re whispering about it when nobody is anywhere near us, B- You just look like someone who wouldn’t smoke until college, and C- Burr kind of told me.” The pair both laughed. “So where are you headed?” Alex chuckled  
“Anthropology 104.” He said.   
“Whoa, me too.” Alex smiled. And so, a wonderful friendship and partnership was born.   
Alex knocked on the door to Burr and Laurens room. Luckily Laurens answered the door (Burr still kind of scared Alex, even if Burr and James were good friends)  
“Dude did you do the Anthropology paper yet?” Alex asked. Laurens eyes got wide,  
“There’s an Anthropology paper due today?” He said in a panicked voice. Alex sighed, now they were both fucked. Laurens began laughing hysterically. “Haha! Damn! The look on your fucking face right now! Of course I did the Anthropology paper! Come on in i’ll show you how it’s done!”   
“I hate you.” Alex fumed.   
“No you don’t.” Laurens said, slinging an arm over Alex’s shoulders and leading him to Laurens’ laptop on his bed. Laurens put on his glasses and showed Alex his paper, and within 20 minutes, Alex had formulated a beautiful paper with 30 minutes to spare before the deadline.   
“Finished!” Alex said as soon as he turned it in, throwing his hands up. "And free for the weekend! I love Fridays!"  
“Whoo! Now let’s go eat!” Laurens declared.   
“You always want to eat!” Alex joked.   
“Go get James and the girls! I’ll get Lafayette and Jefferson! I want a fucking bagel!” Laurens said, grabbing his meal card and keys. Alex knocked on Angelica and Eliza’s door. Angelica opened the door. Their room was covered in Beyonce poster, Maya Angelou quotes, and they had pushed their beds together into one super bed.   
“What do you want?” Angelica said.  
“Laurens wants to go eat.”   
“Shocker.”   
“You and/or Eliza hungry.” Angelica turned to her sister, who was sitting on their shared bed on her laptop.   
“Sure! I’d love a bagel or something.” Eliza smiled. Angelica shrugged her shoulders and grabbed her meal card.   
Maria and Sally were next. Alex knocked on their door and Sally answered. Smiling as always.   
“Hey Alex!” She chirped   
“Hey Sally! The gang is going to go eat wanna come?”   
“Can Maria come?”  
“uh.. yeah sure.” Alex still wasn’t quite over the whole affair with the languages.   
“Then yes! I’m starving!” The pair grabbed their meal cards and went down the hall where everyone was waiting. Alex headed down to his and James room to see if James wanted to go eat.   
“Hey! Were all going to go eat! Wanna come?”   
“Uh.. no thanks.” James said  
“Oh come on! That paper is due in an hour and a half and i’ve seen you write essays before, you’ve got plenty of time to eat!”   
“I’m just more comfortable staying here.” James said. But Alex noticed Dolley repeatedly standing up and sitting down and poking James with her nose.   
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Alex asked.   
“Yes. I’m very sure.”   
“But I mean-”   
“Alex, Not take this like I don’t like you or that I’m mad at you, but I’d definitely like to put off having a seizure with you around for as long as possible.” Alex nodded, understandingly. He also wanted to avoid that, worried that he wouldn’t know what to do and panic. He grabbed his meal card and left without saying another word.   
“Ready?” Alex said, trying to smile at the group.   
“What about James?” Jefferson asked.  
“Uh.. He isn’t feeling well.”   
They all went to the Dining Hall and for some reason literally everyone except for Jefferson, Maria, and Alex were all craving bagels. Everyone was picking up random objects and asking Lafayette what they were called.   
“I know French!” Laurens smiled widely. Everyone looked at him funny.   
“Oh? Really?” Jefferson huffed. Laurens looked him dead in the eyes and said   
“omelette du fromage-” But before Laurens could finish everyone was screaming and shouting about how much they hate Laurens and his joke and how he need to let the meme die.   
When Alex got back, James was already up and sitting at his computer typing away, while Dolley lay on his bed, napping away, obviously not worried about James. Alex took that as a sign that everything was okay.   
“Hey” Alex said  
“Hey”  
“How you feeling?”  
“Tired, thirsty, groggy.”  
“Okay well, who is the president of the United States?” Almost immediately James began laughing  
“I see someone’s been reading up on what to do.” He smiled  
“That didn’t answer my question.” Alex joked, as he jumped on to his bed.  
“Barack Obama you prick.” He laughed.   
“Good. How’d your paper turn out?”  
“Pretty decent consider I had a seizure in the middle of it.” He replied. Alex laughed uncomfortably.   
The rest of the day went by uneventful. The pair of roommates and their four legged comrade went out later and though Alex was still full from lunch, he ate with James. But later that night, when Alex was up far later than he should have been on his phone. There was a small knock at the door. Confused, Alex got up and answered it, Laurens was standing there, looking at Alex with that dopy smile.   
"What are you doing?" Alex whispered, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind him.   
"I wanted to ask if you knew what time the Student Union closed."  
"Isn't that more of a question for Washington?"  
"Yeah," Laurens admitted, "But he scares me."  
Alex chuckled "It closes at midnight I think."  
"Okay, thank you, Goodnight!"  
"Goodnight." Alex turned to go back into his room, but the door wouldn't open. "Shit... fuck.." Alex said, leaning against the door. He was locked out, in his PJs, without his keys or his phone. "Wait, Laurens! Who's the RA on duty tonight?"  
"Oh! Charles Lee." He said with an eye roll. Charles Lee was the most useless RA, possibly to ever exist. Washington was definitely with Martha and Alex didn't dare interrupt those two. James slept like a rock. There was no way Alex was ever getting back in tonight. "Why, what's wrong?" Laurens asked  
"I'm locked out."  
"Ohhh.. damn, that sucks man." There was silence for a few moments. "Hey! Burr at some frat for the night... You could stay in my room.... if you want."  
"That actually sounds pretty great." Alex said, following Laurens to his dorm room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all know where this is going ;)
> 
>  
> 
> Well, we aren't quite there yet. Next chapter is about to get all kinds of fluffy.


	5. Chapter 5

Laurens and Burr’s dorm room was a stereotypical dorm room. Especially for two boys. Burr had the stereotypical blue plaid bedding and Laurens had red bedding. Burr even had that fucking “College” poster on his wall (you know the one i’m talking about.) But Laurens wall had pictures. Lots of them, Him with his friends, him on horseback, him with his family, a picture of a turtle, a picture of a sunset, most of them seemed pretty adorable and serious (except for the one of him at Valley Forge posing as if the canon was his penis) and it was obvious that Laurens was probably homesick. Alex realized he didn’t even know where that home was.   
“Where are you from?” He asked, still looking at the pictures.  
“Charleston… South Carolina.” He clarified.  
“What’s with all you Southerners coming North?” Hamilton joked.  
“I don’t know.. It’s refreshing to not see Confederate flags everywhere I guess?” They soon began playing the “Who’s that?” Game. Which was basically the two of them sitting on Laurens bed, and Alex pointing at his pictures and asking him who everyone was.   
“Who’s that?” He ask, pointing to a picture of John with a very pretty blonde girl  
“That’s Martha, my uhhh... girlfriend.”  
“Who’s that?” Referring to a picture of John with a a girl who looked like him and a guy with hair similar to Jefferson’s  
“That’s my sister, Mary, and her boyfriend Charles Pinckney.”  
“Who’s that?” Pointing at a picture of John with a dog  
“That’s my dog, Jackson.”  
“Who’s that?” Pointing at a picture of John, on horseback, a younger boy, no older than six or seven, clutching to him and laughing, they both look like they’re having the time of their lives.  
“That’s-” Suddenly the smile drops from his face, he drops his eyes so as not to look at the picture. “That’s James,” he says, monotone. “My little brother.” Alex can feel the shift and the sorrow in the room. He doesn’t say anything. John, takes this as a sign to keep talking “He died.. In May… He fell off the swing set and-” He cuts himself off, swallowing his own grief. Alex doesn’t know what to do, he knows Laurens is drowning, and Alex thinks of offering the first life vest he can think of.  
“Who’s that?” He says, pointing to a picture of John proudly holding a turtle. John offers him a very shaky and sad smile.  
“That- That’s Frances,” he says shakily, stray tears streaming down his face, he breathes heavily, trying to collect himself, “Frances is my painted turtle.” And with no more pictures to ask John about to distract him, Alex simply throws his arms around his friend, and holds him.  
It’s a long time before the pair released their embrace. As soon as Alex had his arms around John he broke, sobbing. Only letting go of each other at least a solid five minutes after John had stopped crying, and his breathing had evened out. John looks up, his face is puffy and his eyes bloodshot. “I ruined your shirt.” John half chuckles after a while. Alex looks down at the big tear-stain on his shirt. Before Alex can say anything, John has already gotten up and grabbed a shirt from his dresser, tossing it to Alex. “Put that on. You don’t have to sleep in a shirt you could wring out.” Alex slips off the old shirt, and slips on John’s.   
“Do you sleep with a ponytail?” John says, he’s already putting his hair up.   
“Yeah.” Alex smiles, John tosses him a hair tie. John got into his bed, and under the covers. Alex sat awkwardly. “Uhh… where do I sleep?”   
“Oh shit.” John said. “Well uhhh, in our roommate agreement Burr said that nobody was allowed to sleep in his bed…”  
“Oh.”  
“yeah, uhhh.” John avoids Alex’s eyes “I mean, you can uhh… sleep in my bed.” He says awkwardly. Alex laughs  
“John Laurens I’m about to cuddle the shit out of you.” He says, hopping into his bed with him and wrapping his arms around him. The pair laughed.   
For the first time since arriving at Princeton, Alex went to bed before 4AM.

**Author's Note:**

> "burr said he didn't want anyone sleeping in his bed."
> 
> Sure, John. ;)


End file.
